Warsaw Uprising Museum

                           Me in a replica of one of the tunnels below Warsaw - Poles had to crawl
                                           through these to move about under the city

a propaganda poster from Warsaw

We started off this morning with a bit of a later breakfast, and a trip to the Warsaw Uprising museum.  The part of our group going to the "northern" camp (they deal with little little ones) left early today, and we as those working with the older kids left later on.  We started at the museum- which was a great kick off to our time with actual Polish people.  It commemorates the uprising that the Poles participated in to resist the Germans and Russians invading their city.  Well actually, the Soviets were invading from the East, and the Germans were retreating to the West.  At the beginning, many thought the city would be taken by Russians in 3 days... The Poles, though greatly outnumbered, under-armed and untrained, managed to last 63 days.  The population of the city went from 1,300,000 to 1,000.  Only 15% of the city was left standing afterwards.  It decimated the city, obviously, and it wasn't until Pope John Paul II came to power in the church that they, as a people, started addressing what had happened in their city.  There are still memorials to those who died and celebrations of their lives each year.